• Brandweek, Monday, September 13, 2010 10:35 AM

In a new marketing effort this week, Musselman's is playing the emotion card against larger rival Mott's, writes Elaine Wong, equating an apple grower's love and care for his crop with that of a mother's nurture of her child.

The effort builds on a campaign the company launched in November 2008, which carried the tagline "Grower-Owned Since 1949" and was meant to differentiate itself from Mott's. Now the company is looking to forge a deeper emotional connection with moms, the target consumer for many of its apple-based products.

TV ads launching this week harken back to the brand's prior campaign, via a tagline that says "Proud to be grower-owned." But the spots also introduce a new element. In one, titled "Pop-Up," a mother tells the story of how a Musselman's apple -- and its end product, applesauce -- came to be by reading a storybook aloud to her child.

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